In the textile industry, yarn or thread is normally packaged by winding of the yarn, the term being used herein as inclusive of both yarns and threads, onto a hollow tube or core, normally cylindrical, referred to as a bobbin. Apparatus for the preparation of such packages are well known in the pertinent art and generally comprise a rotatable bobbin chuck over which the bobbin is secured; a means for driving the bobbin chuck, generally taking the form a drive roll which frictionally engages yarn being wound upon the bobbin during processing; and a traversing mechanism generally comprised of a thread guide and means for reciprocating the thread guide along an axis spaced from and parallel to the axis of the chuck serving to guide the yarn in a uniform spiral onto the bobbin, thus forming a uniform yarn package.
In the preparation of yarn packages of the aforesaid nature, it is desirable to initially wind onto the bobbin in an area spaced from the main body of yarn a small amount of yarn which serves in subsequent handling of the yarn as a transfer tail. Specifically, in subsequent handling the operator unwinds this small yarn segment and ties it to the leading end of yarn on another yarn package so that subsequent operations may run continuously from one yarn package to another. The desirability of transfer tails on such packages are well recognized in the art and have heretofore been formed either manually or with apparatus specifically adapted for this purpose. Patents exemplifying apparatus for formation of transfer tails include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,575,355; 3,690,577; 3,672,582; and 3,717,310.
While prior art devices have been of some utility in this area, their utility is limited to the formation of transfer tails on single bobbins and does not extend to the formation of transfer tails on a plurality of axially aligned bobbins of the type disclosed, for example, in copending and commonly assigned Ser. No. 411,560, filed Oct. 31, 1973.